Village or small town near Reading?

[zcjtb43]

I work in Reading and am looking to move closer. I am used to a reasonably quiet place to live, v. safe and green preferably with some amenities (food shop / library / GPs or post office).
I was wondering if anyone could recommend anywhere within 5-10 miles of Reading which offered walks on the doorstep, a few amenities close by and good schools but otherwise a fairly sedate and peaceful life!

We moved out of Reading 6 years ago, like OP needed to stay nearby, we looked in Mortimer and Bramley (both nice, have walks, amenities, schools, good rail links to Reading etc) and are now in Little London which has a pub, Church and piano tuners!

What do you want in terms of amenities?
Twyford is a proper town with shops, wairose etc but I've never seen such things in Pangbourne unless I've missed a part of it?
Again places like Stoke Row or shurlock row don't seem to have much to them in terms of amenities.

@Naughtynovembertree Nice amenities at a walking distance ( 20 minutes) is a must have but we have always driven to superstores to buy our groceries. We are more countryside people than "urban" people. But the aim behind our potential move to MDH/Reading area is to stay there for at least 7 years so we need to get it right the first time (Amenities, family friendly town, good schools, .... are essential...) Hence, my anxiousness but thankfully I have got the Mumsnet community to help me out. If you have any ranking in mind for the "Must to move to Towns" I'd be very grateful. We are not local and not british so the feedback of local people is very welcome!

Must move to are the expensive towns, henely on Thames, Marlow etc.

I’ve lived in Twyford, Wokingham & Bramley (renting) in my 20’s. Wokingham was easily my favourite. More of a town really & very well to do 😂 Twyford was lovely, nice community. Shops. Decent schools. Bramley was just OK. Nice area. Very peaceful. Nothing really there. A pub/curry house. Shop. Train Station with really annoying level crossing! But really handily located between Reading & Basingstoke. I worked in Basingstoke but preferred to shop in Reading. So very handy!

Silchester.

@HenryDarnier you said "Hopefully if I move close to a school in Mid 2022 I think a place at the school will be made available for him." Unfortunately this is not the way places at state schools work (perhaps you were talking about private schools) . There are a finite amount of places at each state school and places will be assigned according to certain criteria when families apply on time. You may be lucky if you apply later and there may be spare places but when they are full, they are full. You may want to check out the private schools as back up options if local schools are full, which many schools are in Berkshire.

@MrsJamin Thank you.
I was talking about primary public school. Thanks for enlightening me. According to the gov website "Moving to another area: You apply through your local council even if you’re applying for schools in another council area... Applications open in September and close on 15 January....The local council must provide a place at another school, if your child is not offered a place at any of the schools you’ve applied for."

So I understand I can still apply for a school in another council but if no place was offered at any of the schools my child would have to go to a random school.
That is quite a surprise. Is there any type of "appeal"? That makes life of parents very complicated...

@HenryDarnier you've hit the nail on the head there - the council will find you a school, but it doesn't have to be your nearest or the one you want, its just whichever has places.
The admissions data for every school is published on the Council websites- you could use this to look at how likely it is a school will be full. Unfortunately in Berkshire the majority of schools are full from initial allocation. You may have to take a school you don't like and wait for a place to come up at a more preferable one - you are effectively waiting for a child to leave though, so it could be weeks, months or years depending on how transient the population is in that area.

@Ohhgreat Oh my goodness, what a very twisted system. My dreams have just been crushed and flushed down the toilet. Maybe we will head back to France by next spring we will see. So I believe in England people buy houses before the application deadline for reception... What a lot of added pressure, anticipation and planning.... As if kids were not enough a handful to raise!

Thank you I will have a look at the data.

You could always find somewhere to rent in the relevant area while you house hunt. That would be doable before the deadline.

Sorry @HenryDarnier but moving before the admissions deadline is exactly what families do. Berkshire schools use geographical catchments.

Yes this is why a lot of families move before they apply for a school for their eldest. It does involve a lot of risk. I knew of a family who were planning on moving to West Berks and the council would not talk to them about which schools had places until they had moved from London. And yes they could have moved and had to drive for half an hour to the nearest school that had a place or find out the one down the road in special measures was the only school with a place. It is a bonkers system but one we all have to work with. I'm not sure what the alternative would be tbh.

I think renting would be a good option but you probably won't find anything with less than 12 month contract.

I was used to live in East part of Reading (Earley) and ve very fond memories of the place. The road network in and out Reading is not very good, so look for a place where you can catch a train from.

All of RG10 postcode (Twyford) is between Reading and Maidenhead is quite a nice area.

Taplow a bit further on is also nice.
As is Goring on Thames.

I didnt like Wokingham and Bracknell too much but Wimnersh is slightly better. Also look at Earley and Woodley side of Reading. Reading town center itself just becoming like an urban sprawl of London and not very nice imo, so stay away from it.

Good luck.

If you have a daughter - Hurst is nice & safe - won't give you supermarkets or cinemas but in catchment for The Holt school (state school ) & has a nice village primary. But it is not a town in any sense of the way that Twyford / or indeed Henley are. It's more of a getting into a car rather than walking to amenities place. But there are nice places & amenities a short drive or a cab away for evenings out etc.

The schools admission process can be quite stressful - if that is one of your primary concerns you could post on the primary education page & see what experience people have of the area you would prefer to move to.

Hi All,

Thank you. Now I get a clearer picture of what we have to do.
Moving for renting now is not an option (or at least not a preferred one). We both work full time and have the 2 children at the nursery. Moving now entails that we will have to find a nursery right in the middle of the year for both children... situation that was very stressful the first time with one child so I'd like to pass....
And then after renting we will have to move again when buying...
On top of that we have no guarantee of getting the school we want...
And I have not mentioned the financial aspect of all of these!

It is the way it is.

Thank you for all your posts again.

I think I ll create a new topic: How hard a life can get as parents...

And we are just at the beginning!

On the schools issue, it will depend on the school. For example where I live (nice part of Bedfordshire) there are quite a few very good primary schools which are not over subscribed, meaning that there are places left over once everyone who applied has been offered a place. If you moved mid year you wouldn’t have a problem. If you look on the local authority website they should have details of how many kids applied to each school and how many places were offered. There is also quite a bit of movement in primary school so even if you didn’t get your first preference school straight away, if you in catchment and are close to the school then you’ll be likely to get a place fairly soon I think.

Spencer’s Wood is lovely. Tadley and Twyford are quite nice.

Hi Everyone,

I went to have a look around woodley and some parts of the town are quite nice.
Is there anyone living there that would like to meet my wife and me to have a quick chat over maybe a cup of coffee or tea?
As mentioned before we have not been in the UK for long so meeting face to face with someone is always something that we appreciate!

Thanks

I'm from Reading and lived in:

Woodley - nice park with a pond, leisure centre and playgrounds. Shopping centre with a little Waitrose etc. Two big secondary schools.

Earley - Big sports stadium with accompanying park and playgrounds. A little high street and the university campus for walks around the lakes. Parts are a bit grim but an easy walk down to the river and along into the town.

Twyford - easy to get into town by bus or train, lovely walks in surrounding countryside and a nice little high street with restaurants and a Waitrose.

Burghfield Common - nice wooded area, lots of walks, can be a bit rough in places. Not so much of a high street but there is a mini Tesco and a baker/butcher/groceries.

Disclaimer - I have not lived in Reading for quite some time so details may have changed, especially about Woodley where I haven't been since I left school.

The most elite and consequently expensive places are probably Goring and Sonning village not common. Both are on the river, but Goring has better infrastructure and is very picturesque, imo much nicer than Pangbourne.

Did you find a property?